Guillen goals give OPRF 2-OT win at DGN
Huskies overcome late 1-0 deficit for key WSC Silver victory
By Dave Owen
DOWNERS GROVE – Oak Park and River Forest’s need for help brought an international response Tuesday.
Spanish exchange student Jaime Guillen’s well-struck 18-yard one-timer off a loose ball scramble in the box with 7:52 left in regulation drew the Huskies (8-1-1) into a 1-1 tie with host Downers Grove North and forced overtime.
Then 1:58 into the second 10-minute OT session, Guillen’s aim was perfect again with a 15-yard low liner just inside the right post to give OPRF a 2-1 win over the Trojans (6-4-3). The fierce battle was the WSC Silver opener for both sides.
“We weren’t playing so well,” Guillen said, “and at halftime (OPRF coach Jason) Fried motivated us and told us some tactics we had to work on.
“The first goal, on a long rebound I was able to get to it, and it was exciting that moment. Then in the extra time I scored the second one. I took the ball and see two or three guys coming. I kept the ball to my left foot and then shot on the ground, and the goalie couldn’t save it.”
The game-winning goal sprung from Brody Bliss’ win of a 50-50 ball just inside midfield. Bliss’ ensuing pass to Paul Garcia initiated an attack into the box, then a short pass to Guillen and a rocket finish sent the Huskies into euphoria.
“Obviously Jaime came up huge on both goals,” Fried said. “He was massive for us and worked really well. And I thought Brody Bliss had a huge work rate up-top for us. He played all over: center attacking mid, attacking forward, outside forward. He was moving things around for us like crazy. He really worked today.”
All the Huskies needed to work extra hard to offset a big-time effort by the Trojans.
“That (DGN) is a great team,” Fried said. “They were extremely organized today. It was really hard for us to get shots on goal no matter what we did. They did a great job. We were fortunate to come out on top.”
While the Huskies generated the first good chance of the match (a Mason/Hseih-Bailey low liner saved by Trojans goalkeeper Gavin Crowson in the 5th minute), DGN soon had the majority of first half threats.
The first bid came in the 12th minute, a Peter Bednar free kick from 8 yards right of the box that Guillen cleared.
Then in the later stages of the first half, dangerous free kicks by DGN’s Sam Bull came even closer to shattering the 0-0 tie.
In the 28th minute, speedy Trojans forward Braeden Gagliano was fouled to set up a Bull 25-yard free kick. The high strike was denied by OPRF goalkeeper Sam Pecenka’s leaping deflection before Nicholas Chapa’s rebound try clanged off the right post.
Just 1:10 before halftime, Bull rocketed another free kick, this time 30 yards, that required a leaping Pecenka deflection over the crossbar.
“All in all it was a really good game,” DGN coach Mike Schmitt said. “That’s a really good team. I thought we played well enough for the win, but I think it was a little unlucky at times.”
However, bad luck could not deny the Trojans’ next big chance.
With 27:38 left in the second half, Ramsey Forst’s right side throw-in from around 30 yards produced a chance in the box and a 1-0 lead on Connor ‘R.C.’ Chapa’s first goal of 2018.
“It was a great team effort (on the goal),” Chapa said, “from the throw-in to (Allesandro) Karrow and Karrow flicking it in right to my feet. I just ran in and got it.”
Karrow’s nice header flick right of the net found Chapa free at six yards for the putaway.
“‘R.C.’ played a really strong game,” Schmitt said. “And Braeden Gagliano played really well for us. His work rate really forces turnovers and makes something out of nothing most of the time. And I thought Ryan Newstrom played really well as well at center back. Overall those three guys really stood out today.”
Newstrom was just part of a strong defensive unit that had OPRF tied in knots much of the day.
“The way they were organized, they did a really good job shutting us down in the first half,” Fried said. “We were frustrated and couldn’t find a way to get through them. They did a really good job staying compact.
“We made a few changes (at halftime) to try to stretch them out. We like to play fast soccer, and they stopped us from doing that. But we started using our speed on the outside and played a little different than we usually do and started stretching them out with longer passes.
“Once we started hitting those consistently, they had to stretch out, and we had a little bit more space. And that’s when the opportunities started coming.”
Set up by passes from Bliss and Guillen, a Collin McKitrick low 15-yarder that deflected off Newstrom to goalkeeper Crowson five minutes into the half began the OPRF revival.
Then after Chapa put DGN up 1-0, the Huskies push intensified.
A Blake Soto six-yard header off a Hsieh-Bailey throw-in with 24:40 left went inches wide of the left post. Then came a massive threat with 18:40 to go.
A Mateja Tadic pass sprung McKitrick on a rush into the box. Crowson came off his line to make a great deflection of McKitrick’s initial shot, then with the ball sailing high in the air back towards the vacant net, DGN’s Akhil Kodumuri cleared the ball out of the crease.
Guillen’s right-side rebound 15-yard shot of that clear went just over the net and ended a wild sequence with no scoring result.
“Fried told us to start playing a little different,” OPRF’s James Maguire said. “We play a lot of possession, but it was so compact that we had to start playing long balls to open it up. In that second half you could see that me, Jaime, Brody and all the midfield got a lot more space and opened up so many more chances for us.”
After enduring a Karrow header just wide off a Bull free kick, those OPRF chances continued.
A major bid to tie came with 13:30 left in regulation. Off passes by Bliss and Grant Kindler, Guillen angled a 15-yard shot inches wide of the left post.
Then with 7:52 left, a similar low diagonal drive by Guillen from the right side of the box found its spot.
A Hsieh-Bailey throw-in into the box produced a scrum for possession. The loose ball sprung free to Guillen, who tucked the 18-yard one-timer just inside the lower left post to produce a 1-1 tie.
“I think we had a little momentum at that point (after Chapa’s goal),” Schmitt said, “but once that (OPRF) goal happened, the wind came out of our sails. But we still plugged away.”
So did the Huskies, whose last-minute burst produced two other big chances.
With 2:30 left in regulation, DGN goalkeeper Crowson made a sliding kick clear to just beat Bliss to a loose ball in the box. Then Newstrom came up big, making a header clear from the crease of Guillen’s long rebound try towards an open net.
On the ensuing Hsieh-Bailey throw-in, Gill’s header went just wide of the right post.
The Trojans had the last threat of regulation (a Gagliano 10-yarder right of the box saved by Pecenka at the post with 15 seconds left) and the two best chances of the first OT (a Nick Chapa shot on goal, then a Connor Chapa shot just over the net).
But two minutes into the second OT, Guillen was on target again for a dramatic end to a big WSC Silver Division battle.
“Unfortunately it’s a conference game, and it sets us back a little bit in terms of that,” Schmitt said. “But overall I thought we played really well.”
Despite grueling recent schedules (the fourth game in five days for both teams, including a Monday match for DGN), it was a high energy battle on both sides.
“That was probably one of our better games of the season against a good team,” Schmitt said. “We tend to step up a little bit against the better teams this season, and coming off a tie last night that we shouldn’t have tied, this is a pretty good performance bouncing back. We played well enough for the win, but unfortunately it didn’t pan out.”
The Trojans’ strong effort, but overtime defeat, produced some lessons.
“I think as a team we take this and move forward,” Connor Chapa said. “We can’t lose like this. We have to play every minute like it’s our last, and then we get a win.
“I think we moved the ball well in the midfield, and what worked was when we got the ball to our forwards and our forwards were able to turn and face. We ended up starting to play a little kick ball at the end, and it ended up poorly for us. But I think we’ll work on that and come back stronger next time.”
OPRF entered with momentum from a 2-0-1 record at the Great Midwest Classic in Indianapolis over the weekend and dug deep to find a way to continue on the upswing.
“Coming off the tournament in Indiana we were playing really well,” OPRF's Matt Hawthorne said. “We were matching up with good teams, and playing our type of soccer.
“Credit to DGN -- they were throwing us off with pressure. We couldn’t find our center forwards or our forwards in general, so we had to work through by basically skipping over the middle.
“Getting this win definitely improves confidence,” Hawthorne added, “especially being a conference game and coming back from down 1-0.”
Producing late-game heroics has been just one highlight of Guillen’s time in the United States.
“It’s so different, all the houses and the high school are bigger here (than in Spain),” Guillen said. “I’ve enjoyed coming here.”
For the Huskies, that enjoyment has been mutual.
“We got that goal finally (for the 1-1 tie),” Hawthorne said, “and then that overtime goal by Jaime...
“This is huge. Losing this game you probably go out of the conference (title race). Winning this, we’re still in it. That’s our goal.”
Offensive heroics aside, Fried praised his defense for enduring DGN’s earlier barrage.
“In the back I thought Bram Lebovitz played fantastic,” he said, “and one of our outside backs Mason Hsieh-Bailey really did a great job today. He’s coming back from some injuries and trying to get back into the play. He did an amazing job, especially on no. 4 on their team (Gagliano), a great forward.
“It was a good team win today. It slowly started happening. We didn’t have the greatest start, but we adjusted and got a really good win against a really good team.”
Starting lineups
OPRF
GK: Sam Pecenka
D: Mason Hsieh-Bailey
D: Blake Soto
D: Bram Lebovitz
D: Zeke Rivera
M: James Maguire
M: Grant Kindler
M: Jaime Guillen
M: Collin McKittrick
F: Paul Garcia
F: Brody Bliss
DGN
GK: Gavin Crowson
D: Brian Benton
D: Will Thomas
D: Ryan Newstrom
D: Adam Kusielki
M: Alessandro Karrow
M: Nick Chapa
M: Connor Chapa
M: Sam Bull
M: Peter Bednar
F: Ramsey Forst
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jaime Guillen, sr. M, OPRF
Scoring summary
First half
None
Second half
DGN – Connor Chapa (Allesandro Karrow assist), 53rd minute
OPRF- Jaime Guillen (unassisted), 73rd minute
First overtime
None
Second overtime
OPRF- Jaime Guillen (Paul Garcia), 92nd minute
Huskies overcome late 1-0 deficit for key WSC Silver victory
By Dave Owen
DOWNERS GROVE – Oak Park and River Forest’s need for help brought an international response Tuesday.
Spanish exchange student Jaime Guillen’s well-struck 18-yard one-timer off a loose ball scramble in the box with 7:52 left in regulation drew the Huskies (8-1-1) into a 1-1 tie with host Downers Grove North and forced overtime.
Then 1:58 into the second 10-minute OT session, Guillen’s aim was perfect again with a 15-yard low liner just inside the right post to give OPRF a 2-1 win over the Trojans (6-4-3). The fierce battle was the WSC Silver opener for both sides.
“We weren’t playing so well,” Guillen said, “and at halftime (OPRF coach Jason) Fried motivated us and told us some tactics we had to work on.
“The first goal, on a long rebound I was able to get to it, and it was exciting that moment. Then in the extra time I scored the second one. I took the ball and see two or three guys coming. I kept the ball to my left foot and then shot on the ground, and the goalie couldn’t save it.”
The game-winning goal sprung from Brody Bliss’ win of a 50-50 ball just inside midfield. Bliss’ ensuing pass to Paul Garcia initiated an attack into the box, then a short pass to Guillen and a rocket finish sent the Huskies into euphoria.
“Obviously Jaime came up huge on both goals,” Fried said. “He was massive for us and worked really well. And I thought Brody Bliss had a huge work rate up-top for us. He played all over: center attacking mid, attacking forward, outside forward. He was moving things around for us like crazy. He really worked today.”
All the Huskies needed to work extra hard to offset a big-time effort by the Trojans.
“That (DGN) is a great team,” Fried said. “They were extremely organized today. It was really hard for us to get shots on goal no matter what we did. They did a great job. We were fortunate to come out on top.”
While the Huskies generated the first good chance of the match (a Mason/Hseih-Bailey low liner saved by Trojans goalkeeper Gavin Crowson in the 5th minute), DGN soon had the majority of first half threats.
The first bid came in the 12th minute, a Peter Bednar free kick from 8 yards right of the box that Guillen cleared.
Then in the later stages of the first half, dangerous free kicks by DGN’s Sam Bull came even closer to shattering the 0-0 tie.
In the 28th minute, speedy Trojans forward Braeden Gagliano was fouled to set up a Bull 25-yard free kick. The high strike was denied by OPRF goalkeeper Sam Pecenka’s leaping deflection before Nicholas Chapa’s rebound try clanged off the right post.
Just 1:10 before halftime, Bull rocketed another free kick, this time 30 yards, that required a leaping Pecenka deflection over the crossbar.
“All in all it was a really good game,” DGN coach Mike Schmitt said. “That’s a really good team. I thought we played well enough for the win, but I think it was a little unlucky at times.”
However, bad luck could not deny the Trojans’ next big chance.
With 27:38 left in the second half, Ramsey Forst’s right side throw-in from around 30 yards produced a chance in the box and a 1-0 lead on Connor ‘R.C.’ Chapa’s first goal of 2018.
“It was a great team effort (on the goal),” Chapa said, “from the throw-in to (Allesandro) Karrow and Karrow flicking it in right to my feet. I just ran in and got it.”
Karrow’s nice header flick right of the net found Chapa free at six yards for the putaway.
“‘R.C.’ played a really strong game,” Schmitt said. “And Braeden Gagliano played really well for us. His work rate really forces turnovers and makes something out of nothing most of the time. And I thought Ryan Newstrom played really well as well at center back. Overall those three guys really stood out today.”
Newstrom was just part of a strong defensive unit that had OPRF tied in knots much of the day.
“The way they were organized, they did a really good job shutting us down in the first half,” Fried said. “We were frustrated and couldn’t find a way to get through them. They did a really good job staying compact.
“We made a few changes (at halftime) to try to stretch them out. We like to play fast soccer, and they stopped us from doing that. But we started using our speed on the outside and played a little different than we usually do and started stretching them out with longer passes.
“Once we started hitting those consistently, they had to stretch out, and we had a little bit more space. And that’s when the opportunities started coming.”
Set up by passes from Bliss and Guillen, a Collin McKitrick low 15-yarder that deflected off Newstrom to goalkeeper Crowson five minutes into the half began the OPRF revival.
Then after Chapa put DGN up 1-0, the Huskies push intensified.
A Blake Soto six-yard header off a Hsieh-Bailey throw-in with 24:40 left went inches wide of the left post. Then came a massive threat with 18:40 to go.
A Mateja Tadic pass sprung McKitrick on a rush into the box. Crowson came off his line to make a great deflection of McKitrick’s initial shot, then with the ball sailing high in the air back towards the vacant net, DGN’s Akhil Kodumuri cleared the ball out of the crease.
Guillen’s right-side rebound 15-yard shot of that clear went just over the net and ended a wild sequence with no scoring result.
“Fried told us to start playing a little different,” OPRF’s James Maguire said. “We play a lot of possession, but it was so compact that we had to start playing long balls to open it up. In that second half you could see that me, Jaime, Brody and all the midfield got a lot more space and opened up so many more chances for us.”
After enduring a Karrow header just wide off a Bull free kick, those OPRF chances continued.
A major bid to tie came with 13:30 left in regulation. Off passes by Bliss and Grant Kindler, Guillen angled a 15-yard shot inches wide of the left post.
Then with 7:52 left, a similar low diagonal drive by Guillen from the right side of the box found its spot.
A Hsieh-Bailey throw-in into the box produced a scrum for possession. The loose ball sprung free to Guillen, who tucked the 18-yard one-timer just inside the lower left post to produce a 1-1 tie.
“I think we had a little momentum at that point (after Chapa’s goal),” Schmitt said, “but once that (OPRF) goal happened, the wind came out of our sails. But we still plugged away.”
So did the Huskies, whose last-minute burst produced two other big chances.
With 2:30 left in regulation, DGN goalkeeper Crowson made a sliding kick clear to just beat Bliss to a loose ball in the box. Then Newstrom came up big, making a header clear from the crease of Guillen’s long rebound try towards an open net.
On the ensuing Hsieh-Bailey throw-in, Gill’s header went just wide of the right post.
The Trojans had the last threat of regulation (a Gagliano 10-yarder right of the box saved by Pecenka at the post with 15 seconds left) and the two best chances of the first OT (a Nick Chapa shot on goal, then a Connor Chapa shot just over the net).
But two minutes into the second OT, Guillen was on target again for a dramatic end to a big WSC Silver Division battle.
“Unfortunately it’s a conference game, and it sets us back a little bit in terms of that,” Schmitt said. “But overall I thought we played really well.”
Despite grueling recent schedules (the fourth game in five days for both teams, including a Monday match for DGN), it was a high energy battle on both sides.
“That was probably one of our better games of the season against a good team,” Schmitt said. “We tend to step up a little bit against the better teams this season, and coming off a tie last night that we shouldn’t have tied, this is a pretty good performance bouncing back. We played well enough for the win, but unfortunately it didn’t pan out.”
The Trojans’ strong effort, but overtime defeat, produced some lessons.
“I think as a team we take this and move forward,” Connor Chapa said. “We can’t lose like this. We have to play every minute like it’s our last, and then we get a win.
“I think we moved the ball well in the midfield, and what worked was when we got the ball to our forwards and our forwards were able to turn and face. We ended up starting to play a little kick ball at the end, and it ended up poorly for us. But I think we’ll work on that and come back stronger next time.”
OPRF entered with momentum from a 2-0-1 record at the Great Midwest Classic in Indianapolis over the weekend and dug deep to find a way to continue on the upswing.
“Coming off the tournament in Indiana we were playing really well,” OPRF's Matt Hawthorne said. “We were matching up with good teams, and playing our type of soccer.
“Credit to DGN -- they were throwing us off with pressure. We couldn’t find our center forwards or our forwards in general, so we had to work through by basically skipping over the middle.
“Getting this win definitely improves confidence,” Hawthorne added, “especially being a conference game and coming back from down 1-0.”
Producing late-game heroics has been just one highlight of Guillen’s time in the United States.
“It’s so different, all the houses and the high school are bigger here (than in Spain),” Guillen said. “I’ve enjoyed coming here.”
For the Huskies, that enjoyment has been mutual.
“We got that goal finally (for the 1-1 tie),” Hawthorne said, “and then that overtime goal by Jaime...
“This is huge. Losing this game you probably go out of the conference (title race). Winning this, we’re still in it. That’s our goal.”
Offensive heroics aside, Fried praised his defense for enduring DGN’s earlier barrage.
“In the back I thought Bram Lebovitz played fantastic,” he said, “and one of our outside backs Mason Hsieh-Bailey really did a great job today. He’s coming back from some injuries and trying to get back into the play. He did an amazing job, especially on no. 4 on their team (Gagliano), a great forward.
“It was a good team win today. It slowly started happening. We didn’t have the greatest start, but we adjusted and got a really good win against a really good team.”
Starting lineups
OPRF
GK: Sam Pecenka
D: Mason Hsieh-Bailey
D: Blake Soto
D: Bram Lebovitz
D: Zeke Rivera
M: James Maguire
M: Grant Kindler
M: Jaime Guillen
M: Collin McKittrick
F: Paul Garcia
F: Brody Bliss
DGN
GK: Gavin Crowson
D: Brian Benton
D: Will Thomas
D: Ryan Newstrom
D: Adam Kusielki
M: Alessandro Karrow
M: Nick Chapa
M: Connor Chapa
M: Sam Bull
M: Peter Bednar
F: Ramsey Forst
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jaime Guillen, sr. M, OPRF
Scoring summary
First half
None
Second half
DGN – Connor Chapa (Allesandro Karrow assist), 53rd minute
OPRF- Jaime Guillen (unassisted), 73rd minute
First overtime
None
Second overtime
OPRF- Jaime Guillen (Paul Garcia), 92nd minute